The Yankees’ prime directive this winter is adding pitching, but they were never in on trade talks for lefty Jonathan Sanchez, who the Giants traded to the Kansas City earlier this week for Melky Cabrera, Yanks’ GM Brian Cashman said.

Bloomquist, 33, is a career .264/.317/.337 hitter, and beyond the ability to play nearly ever position, he has little to offer. Even though he is pretty versatile — a classic utility player — he’s not much of a defensive asset anywhere. He’s racked up a grand total of 1.6 rWAR (and 1.3 fWAR) in his career.

It also appears that the Giants will in fact go with Brandon Crawford as the starting shortstop, and simply shop for a backup this offseason. That would make a lot of sense for the team, particularly if they can find a bat that complements Crawford. I think they should consider Clint Barmes: he can hit lefties (career .793 OPS v. LHPs), and he’s a solid defensive shortstop. If he can be had at a relatively cheap price, he’s definitely worth pursuing.That’d certainly be a better solution than overpaying Jimmy Rollins with a five-year deal.

“We’ll see and that’s one of the things we need to do to: Reconvene on where else we’ll spread our money.”

Unfortunately, according to Knobler, Beltran could be a ‘stretch to fit’ in the Giants’ 2012 budget. If this is the case — that the Giants do end up backing out of Beltran talks due to financial concerns, this makes the Javier Lopez/Jeremy Affeldt moves all the more questionable. Not exactly a prudent allocation of money, considering the Giants’ dire need for offensive help.

According to Jon Morosi of FoxSports.com, the Giants are willing to trade Jonathan Sanchez “in an effort to free up money so they can pursue offensive upgrade.” Sanchez, 28, projects to make around $6MM in arbitration; with Barry Zito under contract through 2013 and Eric Surkamp under team control, Sanchez is somewhat expendable — that is, if the Giants are content with putting Zito or Surkamp at the back end of the rotation.

2011 was a down year for Sanchez, and he only managed to make 19 starts (due to injuries); In 101.1 innings, he posted a 4.26 ERA/4.30 FIP/4.36 xFIP. Few starters in baseball can strike out hitters at the rate that Sanchez has maintained over his career — his 9.36 K/9 is tied with Clayton Kershaw for second-highest among active starters (min. 500 IP). Though he incurred a couple injuries and lost complete control of the strikezone this season (14.9% BB%), his trade value is helped by the fact that this year’s free agent market for starting pitchers is pretty thin.

Back in September, it seemed as though the Giants were all but prepared to slide Sanchez into the fifth slot of the rotation:

Zito will be in camp this spring to compete for the No.5 starter job. It’s looking like Sanchez will be the guy, though.

Zito, then, would presumably become the fifth starter. In his nine starts this year, the results were not pretty: 5.87 ERA/5.60 FIP/4.65 xFIP. He lost a couple MPH off of his fastball, and his strikeout rate dipped accordingly (5.37 per nine innings, the lowest of his career). He’s more-or-less been a league-average pitcher during his time in San Francisco, but it’s hard to believe he’ll continue to pitch like that in 2012 and beyond, as he continues to age.

Eric Surkamp, too, had an underwhelming 2011 (in the majors, that is), and is an even more unattractive option than Zito at the back of the rotation.

Anyway, for the right return, this could be a good move for the Giants. But only if they trust that they won’t trouble finding a replacement for Sanchez in the rotation.

The Giants are another team where Reyes would seem to be a perfect fit, but the word in baseball is that at this point, they are unlikely to pursue him (or to pursue free-agent shortstop Jimmy Rollins, either).

When I wrote about Rollins a month ago, he was looking for a five-year deal (and, well, probably still is). He’ll turn 33 this month, and simply isn’t good enough to justify such a long-term commitment — especially considering his injury history. In the short-term, he’d provide some much-needed stability at shortstop. A few years from now though, a (somewhat)-lucrative contract would likely end up a mess…even the three-year $40MM deal I suggested seems quite generous in retrospect. So it’s not such a bad thing that he’s off the Giants’ radar, especially if he actually happens to command the kind of money he’s looking for.

The other interesting thing Knobler notes — or rather, confirms — is that the Giants have some serious interest in Coco Crisp:

After committing money to keep the pitching staff together for another year, it’s believed that the Giants have just about $10 million to spend for 2012, and that they intend to spend the bulk of it on a center fielder (very possibly Coco Crisp).

Crisp, who tied for the league lead in stolen bases, could be a good fit for the Giants, who need a center fielder and leadoff hitter. “Covelli has made it clear that he would like to play for a team that is determined to compete, and he’d also like to stay on the West Coast,” Comte said, using Crisp’s first name. “I think the Giants would be a viable option for him and vice versa.”

Like Rollins, Crisp’s injury history is a bit concerning (as he enters his mid-30s), but he’s attractive for a few reasons: he can still handle centerfield, he’s quite a prolific basestealer, and he’s good for average-ish production at the plate — which is nice to have from an up-the-middle position. A weak CF market could drive up his price, but at a reasonable cost, Crisp would be a solid addition — and hopefully help the Giants transition smoothly into the Gary Brown era.